My bro and I are looking to knock up a couple of snooker cues at some point.
Just wondering if anyone has any prior experience in the field at all?
Have a pretty good idea of how we’re gonna do it, but any advice/first hand experiences would be more than welcome!
I’ve not got any experience/knowledge personally but I would be keen to also get involved/pick your brains as you do it!
Awesome. Having someone inducted and skilled on the lathe would help too. Not for turning as such as the best way to make a cue is with hand planes, but for boring the joint hole and a few other little bits it’d be handy.
Was thinking of making a prototype first to test the process before committing expensive ash/maple & ebony/rosewood. My bro @SRLC has managed to get some mahogany or similar, so we’ll see how we go with that.
My teacher helped someone make a cue on his Graduate lathe. They did it but I think it was difficult to get the two parts to line up perfectly. Shouldn’t be a problem boring the joints. What is the length of the parts?
Not too sure, but I had a look at the lathe today and think the long part would fit fine. Failing that it’s a hand drill and a very steady hand!
I think that the good ones are planned, I met a bloke who made cues for pro player’s and I am sure he said that the best ones are planned.
But I can’t grantee that I didn’t make that up
No, definitely correct on that one. John Parris in Forest Hill is the best cuemaker around ( supplies pretty much all the pro’s) and they plane them. They did machine splice some years ago, but the machine broke and they couldn’t be bothered to fix it as their main business is hand-made cues. Watched a short video of them making them on youtube…lots and lots of planing and measuring. Planing and measuring…
Sounds fermiler I think that I sold him some wood years ago
I know who I’ll be tapping up when it comes to making the cue proper then! Ash/Cedar shaft with an ebony/rosewood butt. Bosh.